Reflections

Though the fig tree does not blossom,     and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails,     and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold,     and there is no herd in the stalls,      yet I will rejoice in the Lord;...

"Yahweh is good, a stronghold in a day of troubles, protecting those who take refuge in God."  -- Nahum 1:7 God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good. It is a popular call and response. I'm not sure of its origins. I recall it as I sit with Nahum, the...

"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  -- Micah 6:8 All prophets claim authority. Most prophets are full of courage. Micah balances authority and...

"Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish."  Jonah 2:1 Now about that fish, the whale that swallowed Jonah. Some scholars believe the Book of Jonah is the story of a real life messenger of God: Jonah, son of Amittai, a prophet of the northern...

"Though you soar like the eagle, and your nest is set among the stars, From there I will bring you down—      oracle of the LORD."  Obadiah 1:4 Speaking in metaphor, Obadiah addresses the Edomites who lived among the cliffs and mountaintops around the Dead Sea. They...

"But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”  -- Amos 5:24  What a drenching vision Amos has, this farmer prophet from a small village in Judea, called to preach to the people of the north...

 "In  the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God."  -- Ezekiel 1:1 To read Ezekiel you need mind and heart engaged. He is a seer, a visionary....

“But this is the new covenant that I will make with my people on that day,” says the LORD.  “I will put my instructions deep within them—I will write them on their hearts.  And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  -- Jeremiah 31:33  With all the crises...

"But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."  - Isaiah 40:31 It was my first visit home my first year of university. I was tired. First year is...

 "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape...